Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Joan Shaw

Dearest Joan
It sounds all difficult for you.  I wonder if you couldn't catch a student who could help with, anyway, chores, shopping, etc & free you a little in afternoons - boy or girl?  They so often need a few weeks job in the summer - perhaps the local labour exchange would have some on their books - they're often very helpful & kind if you telephone.  I know just how you feel about hospitals.
As to Ralph, there are 2 things he needs always, passionately, which turn into music, & which he cannot bring himself to buy for himself - 4B. pencils, Venus or Royal Sovereign, & blotting paper.  It does sound dull, but he's always enthralled with new.  Otherwise, & nicest of all, anything Martin has written lately, would delight him.
I don't know if you have this - old now, but there may be another vol. before long, & I send a spare, as I'd love Ruth Pittar¹ to have it - I'm not bold enough to send it myself.
Ralph is very well now, though he's had a rather phlebitisy summer - once, and a relapse since we came back from Ischia - but he was all right for Cheltenhham.  Then he had a minor op. at the Middlesex - they let him out after 3 days - so it really was minor - a follow up on last year's effort, & he's been marvellous since.
We are going to the Finzis for a week on Monday, to smell the grass, & look at the Cerne Abbas giant, eat early plums, and perhaps paddle in the Dorset sea - probably sit at home playing consequences while it rains - but we hope!
Lots of love to you both from us both.
Ursula.

1.  Probably the poet Ruth Pitter.